Storage heaters

Cheetah Designs

Cheetah Designs

Cheetah Designs

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Joined
10 Jul 2006
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2,423
How do I set these to only draw energy during the night (Economy 7 tariff)

I only see 2 knobs on the actual heater. An input and an output, which are numbered 1-6.

I assume input is related to how much they store and output will be the speed at which its released....but how do I set it to only draw during my economy hours?

Cheers.
 
As far as I know your storage heaters will draw energy overnight at hours specified by your electricity provider. Mine are the same as yours, input/output dials and I don't have control when they charge. I'm with nPower.

Give your electricity supplier a call - they should be able to tell you the times your heaters will be drawing power from.
 
DiscoDave said:
As far as I know your storage heaters will draw energy overnight at hours specified by your electricity provider. Mine are the same as yours, input/output dials and I don't have control when they charge. I'm with nPower.

Give your electricity supplier a call - they should be able to tell you the times your heaters will be drawing power from.
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If this is true, there must be some local (ie...related to my flat specifically) that dictates this.
 
DiscoDave said:
Yes, they are.

In my meter box I have two readouts - one is my day/normal electricity consumption and I have a separate one for night/economy. The latter is used by the storage heaters.
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Ah right, gotcha...so it will only ever draw from that circuit when the energy provider lets it.

Anything on the normal circuit can draw day or night, but if it draws during the economy period, it is only charged at the economy rate....correct?

Cheers
 
Cheetah Designs said:
Ah right, gotcha...so it will only ever draw from that circuit when the energy provider lets it.

Anything on the normal circuit can draw day or night, but if it draws during the economy period, it is only charged at the economy rate....correct?

Cheers
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Correct. At least for me there's no way for me to specify the time frame used by my storage heaters. nPower did tell me once though, but I can't remember. Obviously this period is 7 hours, and probably split into 2 or more segments.

Any electrical appliance on an ordinary circuit during this period also runs at the lower rate of billing.
 
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DiscoDave said:
Tell me about it.... This winter has been very harsh on my wallet. Definitely going to avoid storage heaters when/if I sell my place and move on :P.
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Try living in a flat with just standard electric heaters, we've used over 1000 units in the last month!

Don't think I'm going to be able to afford the next bill :(
 
Cheetah Designs said:
Surely if you can't control when these are charged, the bills dont change?
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Depends what your input dial is set to. During winter mine are all max, other times they might be at half or even off.

Obviously if you have your dials set lower, they will draw less power during the total 7 hour time period, resulting in a lower bill.

I've also had to get a 1KW oil radiator to bolster the heating as they aren't great.
 
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We've had storage heaters here for years and I've always found them to do a good job in the winter, isn't the cheap rate (between 12-7am here) comparable to gas prices?

You can't expect them to work like gas central heating but they keep the chill off the house during the day and only occasionally do I need to supplement them with the fire/convection heater. I often find people have the homes like a furnace when I visit these days.

I'm sure it works out more expensive than GCH but, unlike gas, they are virtually maintenance free.
 
Mr Joshua said:
We've had storage heaters here for years and I've always found them to do a good job in the winter, isn't the cheap rate (between 12-7am here) comparable to gas prices?

You can't expect them to work like gas central heating but they keep the chill off the house during the day and only occasionally do I need to supplement them with the fire/convection heater. I often find people have the homes like a furnace when I visit these days.

I'm sure it works out more expensive than GCH but, unlike gas, they are virtually maintenance free.
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Indeed! Storage heaters are an economic alternative to wet gas fired central heating in smaller well insulated houses and work well in houses that need to be heated 24 hours a day (Young Children/Elderly). they are pretty well maintenance free (Which is why landlords like them) have very long service lives (Decades) and hardly ever go wrong. In smaller properties they are also a lot less expensive to install.

As with all things, it is horses for courses.

Seems like a strange invention to me
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Storage heaters were developed at a time when it was anticipated that Nuclear power would eventually become the main method for generating electricity in the UK. They were seen as a way of "Flattening" electricity demand between night and day and so ensuring that the cheapest generators (the Nuclear ones) could maximise their contribution minimising the use of more expensive alternatives (In particular natural Gas)

Of course this was all at a time when it was government policy to try to minimise energy costs to consumers/industry. Nowadays the priorities have changed somewhat...! :(
 
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